May 15, 2019

Q. Nice to finally get to be here to settle in?
DAMIAN LILLARD: Yeah, it's cool to be settled in, first game over with. We'll now make our adjustments, come in here and get our prep in and get ready for the next one.

Q. What are some of the adjustments just in general that you might do?
DAMIAN LILLARD: I think, obviously, it's some adjustments we'll make in our pick-and-roll coverages, trying to not let those guys get as many clean looks as they did. I think it's easy to look at the game, look at the final score, losing by 20 and everything. Seemed like we got blown out of the water. Going into the fourth, tt was a six-point game. We had our opportunities with the way we turned the ball over and turnovers. They scored over 30 points off our turnovers. That was a huge problem.

Offensively, just taking advantage of the weak side. You know, when they send doubles into the post and into the pick-and-rolls, making them pay for those things. So going over those. The things we want to do to go against that, to make them pay for all the attention they're giving guys. On the defensive end, like I said, the pick-and-roll coverages, how we defend things off the ball with all the screens they're coming off of. Just trying to clean those things up and go into the next game with a better plan, I guess.

Q. Damian, last year you said whether you get beat by 1 or 20 or 25, it's one game, right?
DAMIAN LILLARD: Yeah, we're not going to start Game 2 down by 20. Obviously, you don't ever want to have that type of game. But the object, what you want to do is take care of home court. They won the first one. We came here to at least get one. We've still got an opportunity to do that, but we've got to be much better to get that done. We've still got that opportunity. That's what we're going to try to go out there and do.

Q. Feel confident after watching the tape and seeing where you guys made your mistakes?
DAMIAN LILLARD: I feel confident. We felt confident going into the first game. Obviously, it didn't work out in our favor. Like I said, as much as we turn the ball over, the shots that we allowed them to get up, and to be going into the fourth quarter and still be a game, that shows that, if we're just a little bit better, that game is going to be much closer down the stretch. That's the position we want to be in. I think tomorrow we'll put ourselves in a much better position.

Q. Does it give you confidence knowing that you're not going to turn the ball over that much and you're not going to be off on your shot that much?
DAMIAN LILLARD: We're confident to begin with. This isn't our first time playing against this team. We know that we're capable of winning, and we know we're capable of winning on their floor. We just know, after looking at it and breaking down film, we just know things will put us in a much better position to win. It's not about us not having confidence. We saw things that we know we'll be in a better position. That doesn't guarantee a victory, but we know we can do some stuff to put ourselves in a better position.

Q. There was a moment last night you grabbed your hamstring.
DAMIAN LILLARD: Just a little bit sore. I haven't seen the exact clip, but it felt like I got kneed in my hamstring. I felt like there was some contact. I'm not sure what it was, but it was just a little bit sore. I'm not sure. I haven't done treatment yet. We'll see.

Q. Was there any fatigue since you had just finished up a seven-game series?
DAMIAN LILLARD: I mean, I think it was definitely some fatigue, but at this point we're in the third round of the playoffs after a long 82-game season. So who's not fatigued? That's not an excuse at this point.

Q. Damian, how do you feel about the quality of the shots you've been getting, not only in Game 1 of this series but throughout the Denver series?
DAMIAN LILLARD: Coming in, I know that teams are going to try to make my life hard. Any opportunity that I do get is going to be tough to get it. Sometimes when I need to make sure I stay aggressive, it's going to be a tough shot because their focus is on me. But that just means I've got to do a much better job of making them pay when they give me that attention. I turned the ball over a lot trying to get it up. If I'm able to execute those plays and those passes without turning it over and guys get an opportunity to score on the weak side, then maybe they soften up, and I can create the shot that way.

But that's what it's going to be. It's not going to be any easier. I've just got to keep playing the game and figuring out ways to get better.